Professor Nekima Levy-Pounds is the director of the Community Justice Project (CJP), an award-winning civil rights legal clinic. The CJP is a part of the Interprofessional Center for Counseling and Legal Services. Levy-Pounds teaches and supervises law students as they use the law as a tool to advance the cause of social justice in poor communities of color through problem-solving, legal research and writing, community engagement and legislative advocacy. Levy-Pounds’ goal in founding the CJP was to take a more holistic approach to addressing complex issues affecting the poor and working poor.

In addition to her work in the CJP, Levy-Pounds is an active contributor to the field of civil rights and criminal justice by serving as a consultant to local civil rights organizations and community groups, a commentator in local media, and a lecturer and speaker in national and international forums. Her scholarly interests include African Americans and the law, the impact of the war on drugs on African American children and families, the treatment of women in prisons, and intersecting issues of race, class, and the criminal justice system. Levy-Pounds also focuses on juvenile justice issues, police and community relations, and the school to prison pipeline facing children of color.

Because of her work in the Community Justice Project, Levy-Pounds was selected by Minnesota Senator Al Franken to advise the senator in his decision to nominate Elena Kagan for the United States Supreme Court.

Courses Taught

A list of classes taught by Nekima Levy-Pounds

Number

Title

Credits

941

Clinic:Community Justice Prjct

6

Description of course 941
:

Students will represent individuals and families facing crisis points within the family. Students may focus especially on helping victims of domestic violence and will participate in the expedited litigation practice involved in obtaining orders for protection. Students will receive instruction in applicable family, civil, criminal, and procedural law, as well as learn the skills of fact investigation, direct and cross-examination, oral advocacy, motion practice, and negotiation. Students may also handle issues surrounding child custody and family dissolution. enrollment by permission only. [Prerequisite or Concurrent enrollment: Professional Responsibility]

944

Clinic: Adv Community Justice

1

Description of course 944
:

A small number of students who have completed a semester in the Clinic: Family Law Practice Group may be asked to part- icipate in the clinic practice for a second semester by continuing client representation and providing assistance to new clinic students. Enrollment by permission only.

950

Supervised Resrch & Writing

.5

Description of course 950
:

Under the supervision of a faculty member, a student may receive up to two hours of course credit for researching and writing a substantial paper on a topic of the student's own choosing. The student must receive the instructor's per- mission to enroll in this course and must meet periodically with the instructor for discussion, review and evaluation. Each faculty member may supervise the research of no more than five students each semester.

Areas of Academic Expertise:

Social JusticeCivil Rights and Criminal Justice

From the article "Grand Ideas: Faculty members describe the best ideas from their scholarship" St. Thomas Lawyer Magazine Fall 2011

My greatest emphasis in my scholarly writing has focused on intersecting issues such as race, poverty and the criminal justice system on African-American children and families. Alarmingly, there are more than 2.4 million, or 1 in 100, adults incarcerated in the United States. Sadly, poorAfrican-American men and women comprise a disproportionate number of this group, largely as a result of the war on drugs that began in the mid-1980s. When African-American men andwomen are incarcerated, their children often suffer emotionally and psychologically, and are sent to live with other relatives or are placed in what are sometimes broken foster-care systems. I argue that in order to preserve poor African-American families, we must reexamine our drug war policies and work to mitigate the harms these laws and policies have caused to this segment of the population.

Upcoming: Focusing on the link between the language of the 13th Amendment and the current incarceration crisis in the United States.

Contributions and mentions in the media

Articles

"Par for the Course?: Exploring the Impacts of Incarceration and Marginalization on Poor Black Men in the U.S."

Levy-Pounds, Nekima, Par for the Course?: Exploring the Impacts of Incarceration and Marginalization on Poor Black Men in the U.S. (2013). 14 Journal of Law and Society 29 (2013); U of St. Thomas (Minnesota) Legal Studies Research Paper No. 14-23.